% Leah Rowe's Communist Manifesto for the 21st Century
% Leah Rowe
% Editing started on 2018-11-13. Actual date to be determined.
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

In my [communism](communism.md) article and [both](brexit2.md)
[Brexit](brexit.md) articles, I laid bare my political beliefs.

In this article, I intend to go much further and create my own manifesto.
This is aimed at the UK, but the intention is to make it easily adaptable for
all countries on earth.

We all know what communism is already. People owning everything, where power is
collective and where the state essentially no longer exists as any kind of
oppressive force.

The purpose of this manifesto is to give specific ideas as to policies that
my ideal country would have.

I'll get right into a list of bullet points.

<h2>Environment</h2>

This is my first concern, above all others. It's useless to have a society that
is breathing its own shit that will die from environmental disasters.

I don't look at cars, meat, planes or factory farming as causes of global
warming. No, *greed* is the cause of global warming, and lifestyle choices
people make that lead to global warming are merely symptoms of greed.

Our fetish for growth and personal wealth is what causes global warming.
Ending capitalism is the first way to end greed.

My thoughts:

- End all global trade of goods. Countries should build their own goods
  instead, which means that they need factories of their own. Countries that
  don't yet have the resources can get help from wealthier nations (such as
  the UK).
  Pollution from air planes is one of the major causes of environmental harm.
  Same for ships.
- Ban all meat. Make it illegal to abuse animals for their flesh or produce
  such as eggs/milk.
  The meat industry is one of the largest contributors to global warming.
  Teach everyone how to be vegan (it's easier than you think).
- Replace all coil/gas with nuclear, wind and solar power generation.
- Do away with roads for use with cars: instead, refurbish existing roads and
  build new roads to make cycling easier (like in the Netherlands) and
  emphasize public transport. Encourage everyone to use public transport and/or
  cycle everywhere.
- Build local argicultural infrastructure, for organic growing of fruit and
  vegetables. This means less need to ship food everywhere from centralized
  points, which cuts down on energy usage (cars and trucks pollute the
  atmosphere).
- Ban all processed foods. The food "industry" is highly toxic to the
  environment.
- Replace all cars with efficient transportation that makes use of
  hydrogen fuel cells and batteries to get around (NOTE: batteries are harmful
  to the environment).
- Severely restrict all international travel. Most people do not need to
  travel all over the world. Nowadays we have the internet, which allows people
  all over the world to connect to each other. People should still be allowed
  to travel, but it should be heavily restricted so as to reduce environmental
  harm.
- End all wars. War is extremely harmful to the environment, and to human life.

<h2>Veganism</h2>

Communism isn't just for people. Dignity isn't just for human beings.

Animals deserve freedom too.

Stop killing them.

Meat, dairy, eggs etc should be illegal.

<h2>War</h2>

It should not exist. Abolish all militaries and destroy all nukes.

<h2>Health</h2>

- Fully funded national health service.
- Focus on preventative healthcare: regular health checkups to be given to
  all citizens.
- Ban sugar. Literally do not allow it to be made, imported or purchased.
  sugar is toxic to the liver
- MENTAL health is just as important as physical health.
- Ban all soft drinks. Including the diet ones. The diet ones are even worse,
  since artificial sweeteners are carcinogenic.
- All fruit/vegetables should be organically grown.

Tobacco, alcohol etc:

- Ban tobacco. Smokers who don't want to quit can vape instead. It's healthier
- Alcohol is OK, but introduce minimum pricing (like in scotland) to restrict
  the possibility of alcoholism

Drugs:

- Legalize all drugs. This will cut down on crime, diminish the black market
  and allow proper regulation for public health.
- Encourage weed (vapourized) instead of tobacco/nicotine. Stoners are generally
  really nice people, and usually very relaxed. Getting stoned is a really fun
  way to pass the time, and there are several medical benefits to moderate
  use of marijuana.
  A few friends huddled around a vapourizer or bong, with some music, dim
  lighting (because your pupils seriously dilate when you're high) and maybe
  cards or something, or some fun board game etc... it's a perfect way to
  spend an evening. This sort of thing should be encouraged.

<h2>Work</h2>

- At least 15 GBP per hour living wage.
- Workers not compelled to work more than 24 hours per week. This should be a
  right.
- Decent health/safety laws
- Protections for women, transgender people, bisexual/gay/lesbian/ace
  and intersex people. And also black people, asian people, muslims and other
  ethnic minorities.

<h3>FULL EMPLOYMENT</h3>

- Everyone who wants a job should have one.
- If job shortages, new jobs should always be invented.
- Exceptions put in place for people who can't work, or for whom work would be
  damaging to them in some way.
- The prison population must also have employment

<h3>Prison</h3>

- Keeping people locked up violates their human rights. MOST crimes in the law
 books today are crimes invented by capitalists. The only true crimes are
  things like murder, rape, etc. Even theft isn't a crime, but merely a symptom
  of greed brought about by capitalism (under communism, theft wouldn't need
  to exist because everyone would have what they need).
- Abolish all prisons.
- Dangerous people to be put under close observation instead, to prevent them
  from being an active threat to the population.

<h2>UNIVERSAL COPYLEFT</h2>

- Abolish copyright entirely.
- Replace it with universal copyleft. All works must be copyleft, by law.
  Consult with the GNU project and Free Software Foundation, and also the
  Software Freedom Conservancy, on this. Introduce copyleft into law.
  All works must be under copyleft. Putting restrictions on works (artistic,
  scientific or otherwise) should be a crime, for it is a theft against the
  entire human race to withhold knowledge.
- Abolish all patent law.
- Abolish all trademark law.

<h2>COMPETITION</h2>

- Competition is a highly capitalist idea, based on greed. The accumulation of
  wealth always implies poverty at a certain level of the chain.
- Replace COMPETITION with COOPERATION.

<h2>END THE FREE MARKET</h2>

- It doesn't exist anyway. In reality, key sectors of each economy on earth
  is almost always controlled by a handful of duopolies or in some cases
  monopolies

<h2>UNIVERSAL HOUSING</h2>

Housing is a human right. Everyone should have a house.

Abolish mortgages. Abolish rents.

<h2>Destroy the banks</h2>

Get rid of banks. Introduce cryptocurrency to the entire population, and have
everyone use that. With cryptocurrencies, the users are in control.

<h2>Free software everywhere</h2>

Proprietary software should be illegal. See: Free Software Foundation,
GNU project etc for an idea of what Free Software is.

<h2>UNIVERSAL LIVING WAGE</h2>

- Everyone entitled to a minimum standard of living, to ensure dignity.
  Give everyone a universal living wage, regardless of employment status.

<h2>UNIVERSAL EDUCATION</h2>

- Anyone, at any age, should be entitled to full-time education, fully funded
  so that it is free at the point of use.
- WE ALSO need to invest heavily in training new teachers.
